Aya glanced warily at the tables inside Rudi's as she climbed on the stage. "Are you sure it is a good idea, Kuroko?"
Kuroko nodded. "Don't worry. I don't think anyone's going to do us any harm. I mean, they all knew for what they signed up... I think? Besides, if anyone tries anything I've got a real P90 this time."
Aya sighed. "That's not reassuring, Kuroko. I hope there'll be no bloodshed..."

"Welcome, everyone!" Aya said in the microphone, "Today we'll give someawards to the players that distinguished themselved during the third edition of the PPC HQ Hunger Games!"
"And the first one goes, obviously, to Lola McCandless, this season's champion!" Kuroko continued for her, "Lola, if you could please come on stage now..."

Lola grinned out at the crowd. "There isn't much of a speech to give. Eight-day camping trip with a body count of forty-seven? Sounds about average for back home. Thanks for playing, vigilo confido, I'm gonna shut up and get ratted and so are all of you."

And she promptly sprinted off the stage as quickly as she'd bounced onto it, threading her way towards the bar via judicious use of an elbow. Her partner was there, staring at a measure of Bleepka in a crystal whiskey tumbler and looking rather morose.

"Why so glum, chum? You did really well. Like, scarily well, considering you didn't have your magic until, like, the last day or something. Have you been holding out on me?"

"Would that I had, Commander." Algie picked up the glass and held it to the light, inspecting it half-heartedly. "Alas, it is not my skills that have put me in this dudgeon, but my conduct. I was... I was quite mad, by the end. What can that poor woman think of me? What must Agent Library think? What vile things I have done, Commander."

"Algie, listen to me. I've seen people freak out in a warzone before. It's nothing to be ashamed of. You're going to move on, you're going to get the counselling you need, and you're going to get back to full readiness quick sharp. I'll see to it." Lola gave him a one-armed hug that required her to stand on the lower rung of his bar stool. "And that can be a direct order, if you want."

"I'd salute, but this is my eighth glass. I fear I would miss."

Lola raised an eyebrow at him. "Your eighth."

"Indeed. It is not so very strong, once one gets past the harshness of the taste. I recall meeting a Tartar in Rotherhithe who use to make it out of loganberries... though of course, I may be misremembering."

"Really. You might."

"Indeed. It may have been Peckham. Lilianna had business there... I... think... it does not matter. I shall pay it no further mind. Excuse me, madam, might I trouble you to furnish my partner with a round of Sex on the Beach?"

The barmaid gave him a cheeky grin. "Indeed you might, Mr. Wymbourne."

Lola was already in stitches.

"Excellent," replied Algie mildly. "And by way of recompense, two tickets and a hotel booking slip for a weekend in Margate."

It was at this point Lola fell over, for the first time that night and almost certainly not the last.

"You're definitely XCOM trained," James said. He had pushed through to a clear patch of bar next to Algie and Lola while they were chatting. "I'm pretty sure bein' able to say something pithy and inspiring at any given moment was required for anyone lookin' to get to the highest ranks."

The bartender set down two glasses — one lowball glass quarter-filled with amber liquid, the other a pint filled with beer — down in front of James. He ignored them, instead offering his hand out to the fallen Lola in a gesture that was half-handshake, half-helping hand. "Name's James Pittman. Don't think we've gotten a proper introduction before now, Field Commander."

Lola took his hand, got to her feet, and knocked back her cocktail in a swift and obviously practiced motion. "I... wasn't technically from the primary XCOM universe. My homefic was a Mega Crossover and to this day I have no idea how many canons were involved in it. DIC's refusing to touch it with a barge pole. Let's just say that we had Minerva McGonagall instructing the psionics trainees and our best Assault trooper was Buffy the friggin' Vampire Slayer. We won in the end, though, and that's what matters - hey, random change of subject were you from a 'verse with Long War's rules? Because that was brutal."

She smiled. "Lola McCandless, DIA. My partner Algie's the guy trying to beat his memories of being blown up into submission. Normally he sticks to port, but he's from Regency England, they drank like half a dozen Irish stereotypes on a stag weekend in Prague. Don't think I ran into you during the Games, which is a shame. Would've been nice to meet someone else from the Com there, but better late than never, right?"

Algie was content to offer a genial handshake to both of the James Pittmans, or possibly Pittmen, he could see.

It took a moment due to Algie's general wobbliness, but they eventually got it done.

"Nice to properly meet you both," James said. "Even if we had met during the Games, it didn't strike me as the kind of place that fostered too much friendly banterin'.

"As for your initial question, I wasn't from Long War myself. I am familiar with it, though. Had a few Long War-focused missions. Right slice of hell even without the crossover stuff." He paused long enough to take a sip from his bourbon. "No, I was from an alternate version of what my partner refers to as the 'vanilla' timeline. No meld, no EXALT, just us little humans against the universe. I wish we had someone like Buffy on our side. Closest we got was this guy from Germany who thought the aliens sucked human blood." He smiled at the thought, but it faltered a bit as something occurred to him. "I fell out of the 'verse before I could see the end of the war. Found out later that things... didn't go very well."

James paused a moment, but then shook his head. "Ah, but that's the past. This is about the now, about celebratin' your victory and mournin' our failure. If me and my friends couldn't make it, I'm glad to see that someone else from the Com did." He offered his glass in toast. "To the champ."

"Well... The trophy you could barely see before Lola disappeared from view was the Golden Luxray Rider."
"Like last year," Aya continued for her, "the trophy is based on the most iconic happening of the season, and seems that the odd partnership between Corolla and Zeb caught the viewers' interest!"

The two hosts looked around, and noticed that most of the people at Rudi's wasn't very interestend in the ceremony at all.

"Because I'm pretty sure we didn't earn any price, and I'm not exactly sure why we should go meddling with people who were trying to kill us. Even if it was for a brief time and during a simulation," Marina said to her partner while there were going to the bar.

"I said I had to show you Rudi's someday, remember? Besides, it could be interesting to know more about these people without being worried about violence, right?" Richard said.

"Maybe. And I guess we could work with some of them too, if I got this right. Do they have good coffee here?"

"The very best. And who knows? Since they organise this event, maybe these two psychos are the one paying. If they are, I'll make sure to go for a meal too"

"It would be pretty neat," Marina said once they were seated to the bar. And if they don't... Well I could change my choice of test subject for this potion the the Luxray helped me to discover, she thought.

That was probably the best way to describe the demeanor over at the booth containing the members of what once had been District Cynic. The only person who didn't look slightly sour was Xericka, who still wore the same neutral expression that she almost always had. Even so, there was something in the set of her shoulders that gave off a little disappointment.

"Next to last on the district rankings," James said as he perused the final standings scorecards that had been handed out. "No individual agent ranked higher than 21st place. An average of one eliminated agent per day." He paused, then emptied his glass of bourbon. "Definitely not our best showing."

"No kidding," Laura groused. "I still can't believe that the two us — experienced Assassins! — got fewer combined kills than a single DBS agent. No offense, Gremlin."

Gremlin shrugged. "None taken. It's surprising to me, too. Although I should point out that one of those was a mercy kill."

"It seems that does not matter to whoever happened to score this event," Xericka added.

James peered over the sheet again. "Does anybody know why we were named District Cynic? Seems a bit out of place, if I do say so myself." There was a collective shrug from the other people sitting at the table. James responded with a shrug of his own before tossing the scorecard aside. "I'm going to get a fresh glass. Anybody want anything?"

"I could use another beer," Gremlin said.

"Can do. Anyone else?" The other two agents waved him off. "All right. Back in a second."

They had gotten themselves cleaned up for the ceremony. It seemed the thing to do, and according to Gall, it was important not to show weakness to the enemy even in defeat. After a good night's sleep and a shave, with his hair tied back in a short ponytail, Derik looked almost handsome, at least from one side. Gall had left her helmet at home, but her armor was polished to a high gloss, and she'd taken the time to braid her hair more elaborately than usual.

They went first to the bar. They had priorities, after all.

Gall thumped the bar top with a begreaved fist. "A tankard of your finest mead, sir!" she called out. "For tonight, we feast!"

Rudi, by this time accustomed to her antics, rolled his eyes. "And you, Derik?"

"Redbreast, the twelve-year, please."

"Coming right up."

They watched Aya and Kuroko announce Lola's name, and their drinks arrived.

The two DBS agents shifted down the booth seat to make just enough room for Gall to sit down. Laura eyed the new arrival from behind her sunglasses, but made no comment.

"We," Gremlin said, sweeping her arm in such a way as to encompass the three people still at the table, "have been mourning our performance in the games. Well, the Assassins have really done most of the mourning. I'm more disappointed that we—" she pointed between her and Gall, "—didn't get to meet up and fight everyone. Or each other."

...three Spies sat together, nursing their drinks. They glanced up at the stage when Kuroko and Aya began to speak, then returned to their conversation.

"So, as I was saying, if it weren't for that flood, I could've easily won," said Harris, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms over his chest. "You'd just have to lone wolf it from there. I mean, half of the time these people were getting backstabbed-- so the obvious safe route is to work alone."

Spoken like a true sociopath, scribbled Tacitus in his notebook. Yet another thing to add on your raging narcissism complex. The Zorua pushed the notebook to the centre of the table for all to read.

"Why you--!" Harris shot a withering glance at Tacitus, who returned the look with a creepy smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Look who's talking, you creep. You're just mad because you got your head smashed in by Derik!"

Tacitus shrugged and returned to his doggie dish filled with Bleepka.

"Nah, Tacitus is right, man," said Yakov in between sips of his Firewhiskey. "You gotta team up to survive."

"Oh, sure," said Harris huffily. "And look at you: downed by Luxury and her canteen of Single Tears. Working in a group is an invitation to get backstabbed, I tell you. Lone wolf it-- it's better. And speaking of lone wolf..." he looked around. "Did anyone see Gaspard? I thought he'd be here."

"His alone time is all the time," replied Harris. "Oh, wait. I see him. He's sitting alone at the counter. Geez, what a weirdo. Can't even sit and socialize properly, can he? I told him already-- I persuaded him to sign up for his own good! Fine, then. Stay in your corner. Have fun over there. Your friends are over here, if you're looking for them."

Yakov shrugged. "Well, if it's what he wants... I don't see why we should bother him."

Tacitus looked back and forth at his two colleagues. I don't even think he has friends, he thought to himself. Not my problem, though.

Derik had just shook his head and sipped his whiskey when his partner ran off. That was fine. He had people he wanted to talk to, as well.

Presently, he spotted one of them off in a corner with some other agents. The small grey Pokémon made for an unusual silhouette among humans.

Derik took a deep breath. This was perhaps the meeting he was most uneasy about, but for that reason, it was all the better to get it done sooner. He took another sip of his drink and made his way to the corner table.

"Excuse me... um, Tacitus, right?" He hadn't known the agent's name, but he'd learned it by checking the scores after the fact.

The former Digidestined spoke to her partner, " You did pretty well in there, Henry. Second place and the same number of eliminations as the champion? That was impressive, specially considering that we are just newbies around here." Suddenly, Aiko started to look a bit down. " I wish I could have done better. Fighting with a Flower over something and accepting "water" after the Arena was flooded weren't my brightest ideas. Should have realized that they would throw something like SIngle Tears in there."

Henry comfortly put his hand on his partner's shoulder and spoke sympathetically, " Hey, most of that wasn't your fault. I mean, maybe you shouldn't have stayed at the Cornucopia and fought with Captain Dandy, but there's no way you could have know the rest of that stuff. There's pretty of crazy, unpredicable stuff in the Hunger Games in canon, so don't sweat it. And from what you said, that Selene woman sounded way too convincing, right? "

Aiko smiled warmly in gratitude to her partner. " Thanks, Henry. So what do you wanna? Do you want to go find us a table? "
Henry smiled in returned and responded, " Don't mention it. And well, I kinda want to find Sergio and his partner first. I'm not happy how things went with them inside that thing. I know that killing each other was the whole point of this, which is why I'm glad we didn't end up fighting each other, and those deaths were obviously just simulated, but I really didn't want to end up fighting either of them. So I feel I gotta say something to them." With that said, Henry started to look around the room to see if Sergio and his partners were already there.

then proceeded to walk to the table where he was seated. Once they got there, Henry smiled sheepishly at the veteran agent" Hey there, man. I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about how it went down there. I know that it was just a simulation and the whole was having agents kill each other, but I really didn't want to end up fighting or accidently taking out one of your partners. Still, if you want us to seat with you, I'll happily oblige you. " Henry took a seat opposite to Sergio and then motioned towards Aiko, who had taken a seat next to him. " This is my partner, Aiko Kimura. "

"Nice to meet you too. Oh, by the way, these are my partners. Or ex-partners. Still haven't figured how that works, having retired and all."

A girl with long brown hair, sitting next to him, bowed slightly. "I'm Nikki. Nikki Cherryflower. You might've seen me around in the game, too... well, for very little. I didn't last a day before being ambushed. I guess I'm out of shape."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, it happens. I'm pretty surprised Rayson lasted more than the both of us, actually." said another girl. While she was currently human-sized, nearly everyone could still recognize her as Corolla. "By the way, Henry, it's fine. There's no need to apologize."

"Indeed," Sergio agreed, "It was just a game - a bloody and very realistic one, I have to admit - and you fought very well. Congratulations on your second place - you outlived, or even defeated some of the PPC's very best."

Sergio got up and walked over to Henry before giving him a pat on the shoulder. "That's something you can be proud of, and I don't think anyone's holging a grudge against you."

" It's nice to properly meet, um ... Corolla, was it? And it's nice to meet you too, Nikki. And thank you both for being so understand. And yeah, I'm surprised I did THAT well. I mean, I'm just a newbie with very few missions under my belt and you guys, well ... I have only being here for a short while but I have already heard about your missions. Seems you guys were pretty amazing back when you were still active. And Sergio, you did pretty well in that fight we had. You're not half bad with a sword, I must say." He then offered a hand shake to Sergio.

Aiko bowed slightly back at Nikki. " Well met, Nikki and Corolla. And well, I have to say I didn't do that well in there, either. Definitely shouldn't have accepted any water after they flooded the Arena. Glaurunging Single Tears ... Anyway, I heard about you guys too , but I have being around here for longer, growing up in the Nursery after being rescued from a badfic and all. You did quite a quite few missions into Card Captor Sakura and the Nanohaverse, didn't you? And into a few crossovers with Henry's home continuum, Harry Potter, too, I think."

((Hardric, you can have Marina and Richard join them if you want. They were in the same District, after all, even if they didnt actually met in-game. Plus, we are going to do that co-write at some point, so it would be nice if the four of them actually meet beforehand.))

"Don't tell me that Corolla has been spreading the epic story of Lightning Turbo and Amazing Nikki again?"

The Unison Device crossed her arms "Nah, just the truth to those who ask about you two."

"Well, we have to admit that some of the missions we were in were quite high on the madness scale." Nikki condeded, "like that Alyxx Heart Sue... And yes, we did many missions in those continua. Though the two veterans are Sergio and Corolla - I retired after just one year and half."

Sergio nodded. "After the Blank Sprite Incident - I think you might've heard of that? - Nikki and I decided that we had enough fighting. Let's just say that the both of us had our fair share of battles even before joining the PPC. Now I'm a racing driver, and Nikki runs a café, but I think it is a good idea to still keep our combat skills honed - you never know what's going to happen in the future."

"If we are to get a meal, I think I should go check for a table now," Richard said. "And don't try them immediately, please. Flander's Company's coffee is... special."

"Understood. we'll see that once it served though," Marina said, "And it better to be really strong. And black"

"Don't think you'll be disappointed," Richard said. He then began looking for table who weren't occupied or didn't looked like they were reserved. First one he found was next to a small group of people who seemed to be getting off fairly well. At closer inspection, one of them looked like the 'newbie' who had lasted so long in the Arena.

"Uhm, sorry to disturb you, everyone. Are you expecting anyone who would use this table?"

" I'm fine with you join us, you would have to also ask these three, " he said while gesturing towards Sergio, Nikki and Corolla, " since they were seated here before us. But hey, you were in District Newbie too, weren't you? We didn't get to meet to back in the Arena, so let me introduce myself. I'm Henry Asclepe. It's nice to meet you."

Aiko smiled cheerfully at Richard. " And I'm Aiko Kimura, his partner. As you can probably guess, I was in District Newbie too. It's nice to meet you. " She tnen returned to speaking to Sergio's group. " Blank Sprite? I think I have heard of that, yes. That was when several canons went just plain missing without a trace from their continua, wasn't it?"

"There is no need for anyone to move away, provided you don't wait anyone else," Richard said, "and yes, I was on District Newbie, but both me and my partner were eliminated after this Single Tears flood, and none of us were going after people before that, so... Sorry, forgot to introduce myself. Richard Legard, DMS, Freelance Division, and this is my partner, Marina Nicodelli," Richard said, pointing at his partner at the bar, before facing again Henry, Aiko and their companions. "Nice to meet you too. But who are the people with — Wait, did you said Blank Sprite? You-you're agents Sergio Turbo, Nikki Cherryflower, and Corolla?"

"Some company will be interesting too, since me and Marina never really had the occasion to meet many agents in somewhat normal circmstances. And sorry for the newbie act, rapports of your mssions were pretty impressive. I discovered Nanoha and Madoka thanks to them, and agent Desdendelle's too. It always impressive to know that some people can retire here with a happy ending. Although I'm curious to know how the Blank Sprite ended up. I never found a complete rapport about it. But I'm being obnoxious there, sorry"

"And... well, for the full story you might have to wait until the rest of the reports get declassified of something... but, well, the short story is that we got the culprit and saved both Madoka and Sakura. Sure, there have been some slight mishaps while canon reasserted itself, but..."

Sergio gave a quick nod towards Aya and Kuroko. "I don't think we really can call these two a mishap, can we?"

"I asked for several coffeepots of Caleb's coffee Flander's Company, diluted to 1/10. I promise you never tried coffee like this." Richard then watched Aya and Kuroko. "So they were involved in this mess? Would it have any link with the fact they seems to look like Madoka and Homura?"

"There was a bit of mess involving the Madoka Magica continuum, and in the end when everything went into place we kinda ended up with Madoka and Homura being cloned." Sergio explained.

"The way how it happened is rather complicated, actually," Corolla said, "We still haven't understood it fully. Nevertheless, the Flowers weren't that happy about that. That's why I ended up in DoSAT, actually."

"And I wasn't so happy about how the Sunflower treated us for letting that happen - like we could have done something about it - and for how we dealt with the whole incident. That's one of the reasons why I handed in my flash patch." Sergio continued.

"Besides, the two of us really wanted a chance at a normal life, just like Kuroko herself did - and obviously Aya followed her," Nikki completed, "though we remained in contact with Corolla and other people inside, and aside from a little mess Sergio made with a mail he shouldn't have sent we managed to remain in decent terms with the Flowers."

"It's a real problem, I always end up searching for any scrap of information if something catch my eyes," Richard said, before waving his hand at Marina to let her know where he was. He then went back to the people at the table. "But I think I monoplized the conversation enough here. So, what do you want to speak about?"

"I was a history student back in World One, and i answered an annoucement I found on Internet. Although I didn't suspect anything about this place until II saw the portal they opened in my appartment. It took them what, five minutes at most once I had sent my message for 'more information'. Then I ended up in the Marquis' office, was sent to training, and began to discover this place. Guess I should have been more careful with reading things before accepting them. Same thing with this mess, the flyer I saw for it made thinking about a training event... How did it go for you then?"

how exactly agents that came from World One ended up in this place." Aiko responded cheerfully, " As for myself, i have a lot of history around here. Me and Anju, my Digipartner, got rescued from a Digimon AU badfic where we each the daughters of two canons. After that, we spent about six years growing up in the Nursery, where we eventually went through agent training before each us sadly went our separate ways. So that's how I ended up in Floaters, partnered with Henry."

At this point, Henry decided to chime in, " And I pretty much ended here throught a plot hole after the unfinished fic I came from got deleted. As a result I don't remember much of my life before I came here, just that I used to play as a Beater in the Gryffindor Quidditch team and that I came from a family of Healers. But because I had only gone throught basic training, I ended up in Floaters instead of Medical."

" Anyway, I think I will leave asking about your partner when she gets here, so for now, I will just ask these three, " Aiko said while turning her attention back to Sergio's group, " What about you? How did you all ended here? I have heard a lot about you guys, but I don't think I ever heard about details like that."

"I was just a bit character in a badfic Sergio got assigned several years ago. I was supposed to be a Generic Casualty, but I managed to cling to life long enough for him to notice me, and so I was brought to Medical, patched up, and assigned as his partner."

"As you can guess by my appearance, I was a Sakura replacement from a crossover fanfiction including Card Captor Sakura," Nikki explained, "and when that fic was abandoned I ended up being dragged across several other fic in need of a Sakura replacement, ended up losing a good chunk of my memories, and ultimately I fell in the PPC through a plothole. I then ran into Sergio and Corolla, and ended up working with them."

"Seems you were right, the people who organized this mess are paying. And this idea makes me pretty hungry. But are you sure about this coffee? Because they said to me it's diluted."
"Aboslutely certain. I already tried it several times, and a cup of the 'pure' version can incapacitates normal people for three days," Richard said. He then turned his hand at the people from te other table. "These are Sergio Turbo, Nikki Cherryfloower and Corolla, ex-Floaters, and the two other people are our ex-district comrades, Henry Asclepe and Aiko Kimura, Floaters too."
"Greetings," Marina said, her head sightly bowing, "Nice to meet you. And congratulations to Mister Death-By-Chivalry for his performance."

" Richard said you guys were taken out during the flood of Single Tears. Well, you may remember or not, I was too. Accepting that canteen after that happened definitely wasn't my best moment. Anyway, we were all just sharing how we ended up here in the PPC. Do you mind sharing your story?"

Meanwhile, Henry gave an awkward laught upon Marina's mention of his defeat. " Yeah, that wasn't my best moment either. In my defense, that game was sort of messing with my mind. It made me question my sanity and gave me nightmares plenty of times. Still, second place and same number of "kills" as the champion isn't all that, I guess."

"Yes, 'Single Tears'. I snatched a canteen from this Luxray," she said, pointing at Zeb, "Never thought he would keep that stuff inside." She shuddered, "I already saw people who were victims of mental attacks before, but drinking liquid despair... It makes up for a decent tie-in, though. I'm a 'Dresden Files' wizard, and my appartment and the office where I worked as a 'consultant' for the police were burned down by Fomors, who tracked me until I took a pretty crazy risk and ended up in this place. And if that Marquis was right about this 'uncertain canon status', I'm not even sure to see my family and my master again. Although I guess that I'm not the only one here with this sort of problem."

She then turned to more or less face Henry. "Hope for you that was only because of this wonderful simulation, because second place and shaky sanity kill. Very fast."

Richard carefully remained silent, busying himself pouring cups of coffee.

" Yeah, you're certain not alone in that regard. I have a similar problem myself. As an uncanon daughter of two canons, I can never go back home or see my parents again outside of a mission in my home continuum, but even then I can't interact with them as I would like for obvious reasons. "

" And what family I had probably vanished from existence when my home fic got deleted, " Henry added, " Anyway, I'm pretty sure that what happened to me was just a result of the RNG messing with me during the simulation. I mean, some agents do go crazy from doing their job, there's a reason why the phrase 'going flamethrower' exists as a reference to that, but I think I'm pretty sane outside of that thing. Well, horrifying first mission aside. I still can't believe they us a Glaurunging bleepfic for that."

"I guess it always could have been worse. Like I said, death came pretty close, and my original plan didn't ensure that I would survive, so there's always that," she said. "And I guess from the way you say 'bleepfic' that I was also lucky for our first mission. It involved my universe, and the worst thing which happened was me hexing my partner's material, but we did work around it at the end."

"That, and my MP3," Richard said as he handed her one cup of coffee, before adding pure cocoa to his own cup. "But yes, it mainly involved breaking the basic rules from the Dresenverse and bad shipping. The most difficult part was killing three Suvian goblins, but I found a pretty fitting way to kill them."

" Trust me, our mission was indeed terrifying. I don't know if you guys are familiar with Sailor Moon, but suffice to say that we had to watch as a child character, one of my favorite characters at that, got horribly tortured and then killed by her own mother. I will spare your anymore details, since I don't think there are enough Bleeprin products in the entirety of HQ to erase those horrifying images from one's mind. Certainly haven't been erased from mine."

" Yeah, it was pretty horrible.But at least the Character Replacement wasn't very smart and pretty easy to kill with the right disguise." Henry added.

Fortunately, None was touched. "She did what? How this Suethor could do that? I mean, it would have been horrible enough if some monster had been used, but her mother... What the duck is in the head of these people?"

Marina grimaceed, "I... had to see prettty ugly scenes in my life, but I would certainly put this among the worst. A chance for you that the eliminatio was easy, though. We also had it easy once he had the idea to feed the fake goblins to the real ones," she said, pointing at Rchard who was cleaning up the table, still looking a bit pale, "I have a question though, what's this Bleeprin you're talking about?"

"That must've been terrible, and... well, I think that was too much for a first mission. But... well, I don't think I had much better. Mine was a hurt/comfort rapefic with Sakura as the victim... not pretty, especially since that Sakura was around my age so she looked like me. I will never thank whoever invented Bleeprin enough."

"Mine was a Lyrical Nanoha one in which Shamal broke down and went on an amnesiac killing streak against some street thugs," Sergio recalled, "afterwards, when Signum got her to calm down rather intimately, the message that was passed was along the lines of 'oh, you killed some random people but now you calmed down so it's OK'. But, really, the truly scary thing that day was the fact that I had been parnered with Luxury for the mission. Luckily I didn't run into her at the Games."

" apparently, the Suethor hated Rini so much for being a brat that they had Serena do ... Unspeakable things to her. I'm not gonna lie, she can be quite annoying sometimes, specially if we're talking her in the first anime, but how in the Dark Ocean could this person that could possibly justify ... THAT is still Glaurunging beyond me."

She took a deep breath to try to calm herself down before continuing, " But yeah, at least Filicidal!Serena was pretty easy to take down. Sailor Moon characters have parts of their souls that can get taken out by villians and we basically exploited that to pretty much instantly kill her."

" As for your question, Bleeprin is a medicine made out of bleach and aspirin. We use it to erase scarring image caused by particularly awful badfics from our brains. You can take them in pills or combined with certain foods or drink, such as chocolate or non-alcoholic beverages, " At this point, Aiko got an odd expression, " though the latter still get people drunk, somehow. Anyway, Bleeprin is the reason why bleepfic are called that. They are badfics that are awful that they make you reach for excessive amounts of Bleeprin production to get rid of the horrifying mental images , but sometimes even that is not enough ... "

Henry scowled upon hearing Nikki and Sergio describe their respective first missions. " Seems that we weren't the only ones to have it pretty rough on our first mission, then. But seriously, why do they keep doing that? That can only lead to more agents going flamethrower more often and earlier. It doesn't make any Glaurunging sense!"

Aiko shuddered and gulp upon hearing the horrifying description. " Why would anyone do something like that? Triviliasing rape for the sake of cheap drama, not mention trivialising Glaurunging MASS MURDER! For Azulongmon's sake, why, just why!? Seriously, Shamal doing something so horrible is about as likely as Serena hating Rini to point that she would do such horrible things to her. They're two of the kindest canons in the multiverse, they would never do such a thing. Specially Serena after finding out that Rini is actually her daughtet, though she cared about her very much and did all she could to protect her even before anyone knew that."

"We have stuff which can do that and you never brought it up? Granted, we didn't exactly need it for now but it would have been nice to know about it," she said.

"Well, as you said, we didn't need it, and dependance and overdose are pretty normal things when it comes to Bleeprin, and if you're unlucky, you will also have allergies. is that good enough for you?" Richard said.

Marina sipped her cup before answering, "The explanation is a decent one, so that will do. But I want sme tabs before we go for the next mission, understood? At least magic don't stop me from taking medications, I could as well profit from this."

"Alright," Richard said, still a bit shaken by the agents' discussion, "Why the magical girl shows attract people who think that's good fanfiction? And the Flowers have the nerve to say they select the missions to somewhat preserve our sanity."

Alex, reunited with his beloved fire-lizard once more, laughed and clinked his glass against Zeb's. "It was pretty sick, yeah," he said, taking a long sip from his soda.

"Aside from the... explosions," Zeb continued, his ears flattening against his head. They quickly perked back up again. "But other than that, I had a lot of fun! We totally need to sign up for the next one."

"Yeah!" Alex grinned. He thought briefly about paging Farilan and telling her to come join in the celebrations, but decided he didn't want the atmosphere ruined by her snootiness. Zeke trilled in agreement.

"I'm sitting in this corner now. This corner is nice and cool and not full of Tacitus being toxic." He uncorked his flask of Firewhiskey and took a long draught from it. After putting down his flask on the table, he grabbed himself a napkin and wiped his mouth. "Saw you guys out there in the field, by the way. Good show, guys. A pity we didn't get to meet face-to-face, eh? 'Coulda formed an alliance and wrecked the rest of these fools."

"Ah, but I'm sure my absolute lack of charisma and horrible-ish looks would've won both of you over in a matter of moments." He chuckled and pulled a two-fingered salute. "Yakov Minin, DoI. Pleased to meetcha both! I was one of the poor blokes who fell victim to the Single Tear poisoning spree. For the record, it was kinda sweet and burned like fire on the way down."

Alex waved at Yakov. "Alex Dives, recently-promoted DoSAT tech. Never been in the field but I keep bugging my sister to take me."

"Not until we think you can handle yourself," Zeb said firmly. He looked at Yakov and grimaced. "If I'd known what that would've felt like..." He shuddered and looked down. "Still feel horrible about offing that one agent, but... I mean, it was kill or be killed, wasn't it...?"

"'twas all a combat sim anyways. Like the ones those folks over there can use for training," he added, pointing to Lola and Algie. "Still, nice work with the water. I bet your victim didn't know what hit them until it was too late!" Yakov took another sip from his flask and turned to Alex. "So, what's it like for you guys in DoSAT? Is it hard to get in?"

"Not really! Well, not for me, at least. Hornbeam asked a bunch of questions to determine my technical know-how and when it was a bit lacking he decided to make me an intern instead of a tech. I got promoted after a few months, though."

"I wouldn't be able to do it," Zeb said, shaking his head.

"Maybe, maybe not," Alex said. "Anyway," he said, turning to Yakov, "it depends on what you do in the department. I'm kinda a jack of all trades, so I bounce around. Mostly I repair CADs and consoles, just PPC tech agents busted. But sometimes I get to work with canon technology, so that's a lot of fun. I've been trying to build my own lightsaber but I still haven't been able to get my hands on a crystal..."

"Sorry kid, can't help you there. If I's slightly better at transfiguration I'd give it a shot but... yeah. Maybe someone in your department would know a thing or two 'bout crystals-- I'm sure there are two or three high-tech aliens in there that used stuff like that in their home continuums." The wizard looked ariund the pub. "Uh... Hang on, there was a thing that came to mind... what was it...? Oh! Right! Interns." He pointed at the bar counter. "See that miserable-lookin' guy over there? He actually failed the DoSAT entry test! Ended up going to a coupla diff'rent departments before ending up in DoI. It's kinda hilarious, really. Nothing ever goes his way-- and he ain't jinxed either! At first, I was sure that 'ee had some curse hangin' over his head but no-- nothin'!"

Alex shrugged. "DoSAT isn't for everyone. I mean, I'm pretty sure I almost didn't get in."

"I know I wouldn't get in," Zeb said, grinning.

"Anyway..." Alex drummed his fingers on the table, looking back at Yakov. "Thanks for the offer, but it has to be a special kind of crystal. I've been considering growing a synthetic one, but it just wouldn't be the same." He pouted.

"Is it something about performance of a synthetic replica versus a natural... whatsit?" asked Yakov. "'Cause if you really, really wanna get yer hands onna natural crystal, I'm pretty sure there's something up on the PPC's grey market. Just have to find the right information brokers and they'll spill the beans and such."

Alex put his chin on his hands. "See, the Sith often ended up using synthetic crystals for their lightsabers and the last thing I want is someone thinking I'm an escaped Stu or something. And besides, it's more... I dunno, personal, getting your crystal yourself instead of just asking someone to get it for you. It's about the process, if that makes sense?"

Yakov dug around his coat and half-pulled out his wand. "Jus' like a wand, sometimes you just gotta let other people do the work for you. D'you want a 'saber or not? Now that's the question you gotta ask yerself... and unless your blade is some funky colour or something, I don't think anyone is gonna know if you're using a different crystal or something."

"Nope. Kid it is." Yakov raised his flask to his lips again, then sighed when nothing came out of the container. He tucked it back into his cloak and drummed his fingers on the table. "So... uh, Zeb. You OK, man? I saw how you got eliminated-- er, on the Lounge's TV, that is. Sorry in advance if you don't wanna talk about it but... I know your story from Tacitus and I just wanted to make sure everything was good."

"Jus' checkin'." said Yakov. "And, uh, Zeb? Tacitus' sense of humour is just him insulting people. You're... uh... you sure you're on board with that? 'Cause I don't even think Madam is on board with that."

"I don't see why I should tiptoe around him when he's treating everyone like dirt. So what if he's had a bad ride up to this point? Suck it up. Why should we take his guff and yet still try to humour him? No-- he needs the attitude change." Yakov looked back towards his old table. "A big one at that."

"And we were supposed to be a team," Morgan lamented, glowering at her drink. "But what happens? She -" She waved a hand in Selene's direction " - nicked my stuff, and when I teamed up with you, you got me killed against..." She looked around the bar. "Well, wherever she is. Lo-la." The last word came out in an off-key singsong voice.

Dafydd winced at the sound. "I don't know about that 'team' stuff," he said, ignoring his own (first) drink. "Agent Kaitlyn raided my belongings at least once. And then killed me."

"Heck yeah I did!" Kaitlyn called from the other side of the table. It was only three feet away, but that didn't dampen her enthusiasm. "Elf versus hobbit? Hobbit wins, pants down! Er, hands. Don't want to give Lux ideas."

Dafydd raised an eyebrow and turned it on Selene, as if to say, THIS is your partner?

The vampire shrugged and drained her glass. "We may have been a district," she said, "but that didn't make us a team. There can only be one winner, after all." She chuckled dryly, tried to take a drink, and blinked at her glass in confusion. "And the member of District Huinesoron's-Not-In-This who came closest was the wannabe Hobbit. Who saw that coming? I need another drink."

An enormous rattletrap conveyance juddered through the party at Rudi's. It looked like nothing so much as a small, fractal electricity pylon growing out of a digger chassis, and a small orangey-red ball was perched precariously on top at about head height. As it got closer to Not-Really-All-That-Much-Of-A-Team Huinesoronot-Appearing-In-This-Game (which was a bit of a mouthful even by German standards), it became clear that the ball on the top was a bowl. With a pink thing floating in it. Looking very, very happy.

This probably had something to do with the overpowering smell of Tequila Sunrise coming from the bowl, as well as the dinky little cocktail umbrella poking from the top.

"Kaitlyn! Agent Kaitlyn! Ach ja, it ist beink most excellent to see you again, mein Freund!"

Kaitlyn threw herself out of her seat and attempted to glomp the mobile aquarium. "Wow! It's been ages since we saw each other! That was right before you and Alleb-" She stopped, looking abruptly dejected. "Well... y'know. With the umbrellas."

The Floater shook herself and stepped back. "Wow! I like the ride! Did you build it yourself?" She reached back for the table and grabbed her drink, then plucked one of the mushrooms from the glass and popped it into her mouth. "Ith'th very impreththive."

"However, zere ist an Ambipom in DoSAT who owed me ein leetle favour, und zis vas it! I am likink it very much!" The Doktor took a drink from the Tequila Sunrise he was floating in and sighed contentedly. "As for zer tournament, vell, if I vas sad about zer incident vizz zer umbrellas I vould not be havink one in mein cocktail!"

He paused, momentarily deep in thought. "Mein freund, zere should be ein large beach towel in zer leetle box on zer back. If you vould be so good as to fetch it? I vill dry mein self off und ve can embrace like zer friends ve are! If, er, if you are beink amenable to such things, zat ist to say." The Doktor went pink at this.

Kaitlyn practically skipped round the transporter and pulled out the suitably-garish towel. "Though watch it with the spikes this time, y'hear?"

She held out the towel, and looked faintly pensive. "So you're... you're okay? I mean, it was a pretty..." She shivered, took another drink, and brightened up. "But hey! You must've been watching the rest of the games on the console, right? How did I do?"

((I'm having difficulty with Kaitlyn - she's refusing to end sentences with full stops. They're all exclaimed! and questions? and it's like reading Maskerade again. ~hS))

"Ach, ja, I am fully recovered from mein untimely demisemmphl." The Doktor's words were promptly muffled as he wrapped himself up in the neon pink towel, winding it around himself with a noise like a backfiring washing machine. "Ah, zat ist beink much better. Und you, Kaitlyn, performed exceptionally vell. Zhere are zhose who vould be makink zer unkind remarks about your affection for your fellow Hobbit, und I am of zer firmest belief zat zuch people have learnt ze error of zheir vays! Echt klasse!"

The Qwilfish bounced towards Kaitlyn, joyous in the anticipation of more hugs. He was a contact-y sort of person, which might perhaps have been the most remarkable thing about a Qwilfish but in this instance didn't even crack the top ten.

Kaitlyn gave the Doktor an enthusiastic (but careful) glomp. "Wow, it is absolutely super good to see you again. Also!" She held up one finger in her best 'Aha!' pose. "Ahem: squee! You thought I was actually a Hobbit! That is literally the best news I've had since... um..."

She glanced over her shoulder at where her partner still sat, talking quietly with Dafydd. "Sel-ene!" Kaitlyn called. "What was the last best news I had?"

"Hmm?" The vampire looked up. "It wasn't the office chair, was it?"

Kaitlyn giggled. "No, I know I got a DCPS mission after the chair that went on the list."

"Oh, yes, I remember." Selene sipped at her drink. "That Hypatia was busy and couldn't come to Nita's party?"

"That's the one! Thanks!" Kaitlyn returned her attention to hugging the Quilfish. "That is literally the best news I've had since-" She stopped and lowered her voice slightly. "Well, you heard. I probably shouldn't be rude about people."

"If zer Hobbit ist ein species vizz vhich you are havink ein special und particular kinship, zhen who am I to tell you uzzervize? It vould only be beink discourteous for zer sake of it, und zat ist not how I am rollink, as zer Leetle Cup-tiers say zese days. Besides, if you are sayink zer uncomplimentary things about ein fellow agent, vell, you are zer person who ist knowink zem. I can hardly qwibble vizz your assessments."

The Doktor nestled closer into Kaitlyn's embrace, careful not to let his qwills prick her through the thick towel. He was exceptionally content, even by his standards, and wondered aloud if Kaitlyn would like to come to RC 347 and meet his partner one of these days. She was, after all, extremely fluffy.

Kaitlyn practically skipped back to the table with the three glasses, handed one to Morgan - who was shallow in conversation* with the Aviator - and slid the second across the table to Selene. "Just the way you like it!"

"Great." Selene sighed and cocked her head at Dafydd. "So I never got to ask that night - what brought you back for this?"

"She thinks it was her," Kaitlyn confided in a loud voice. "She thinks you're desperate to see her, just li-mmf mmf mmf!"

Selene removed her hand from her partner's mouth. "That is not an accurate summary of what I said."

Dafydd chuckled. "Well, I admit it has been a while since we got together-"

"Has not," Kaitlyn muttered. "I've seen the footage of you two snuggling."

"-but I'm actually here because I traded favours with Undis Closed." Dafydd glanced around, then leant over and whispered something in Selene's ear.

...thinking of repleneshing her usual stock and possibly staying for a drink or two. She'd apparently not been paying attention when Zeb and Alex had said where they were going, because a party was the last thing she'd been expecting to see.

She looked around, saw Zeb and Alex talking energetically at their own table, and decided she didn't want to talk to them at the moment. She looked around, spotted Morgan at one of the tables, and wandered over.

"'lo," she said, stopping by her. She gave Dafydd and Selene a brief, albeit respectful, nod. She figured the sods got enough people fawning over them as it was; no sense in making a fuss. "Mind if I sit here?" the Aviator continued, mostly addressing Morgan.

"T'ain't no charge for sitting." Morgan shuffled her chair to the side to make sure the Aviator had room.

"So," she said. "I picked up on... some of what was going on with you back in the Arena." She tapped the side of her head, remembering the psychic ripples that had been pouring off the Aviator in her last couple of days in the Game. "I know we're not exactly chums, but if you want to talk about it with someone who was in there too..."

She looked up and accepted her drink from Kaitlyn with a nod of thanks. "Or if you just want a drink," she said, taking a sip of it. "Nutmeg TV are paying. I'm not sure they know they're paying, but gun, etc."

"Sorry about that," she said quietly. "I've... not had the best grasp on my mental shields for a while now. Still working on rebuilding them. And the drinks sound nice," she added with a bitter smile, "but I don't think Nutmeg TV would be too pleased at seeing my tab alone. I'll pay." She glanced up at the bar and decided she'd wait a bit until it was less busy.

Morgan sipped her drink. "I mean, I've spent the last week-ish running around betraying people I'd rather have worked with, and ended up getting killed by someone who-" She stopped, took a deep swig of the cocktail. "Well, whatever. I just... I feel a bit like, y'know... Rassilon. A bit."

She chuckled and glanced over her shoulder. "And I can't help but expect the Notary to show up and say that's a good thing... eh." She leant forward on the table. "But, look, I've not followed the papers, but even I know you've had a rough time of it lately. I have to ask: why did you volunteer to go into a killing ground?"

((Sorry for the weekend's delay. Also sorry for not having anything to say. ~hS is bad at RP))

The Aviator rubbed her forehead and sighed. "Zeb wanted to have a bit of a challenge, y'know? Opponents smarter than Sues who just stand around while you read the charge list. And my brother's been itching to go into the field at least once to see what it's like. He jumped at the idea when the Games were announced, and... I let them talk me into it." She sighed again. "Not ever doing that again, not in this regeneration."

Looking around, she saw the bar was beginning to get more crowded rather than less, so she stood up, said "'Scuse me," and went to get a drink. Several minutes passed and she returned with a glass smelling strongly of ethanol. "Right," she said, sitting back down and taking a large gulp, "Where were we again? Oh, yeah. the Games." One of the Aviator's eyebrows went up. "For all you're talking about how it shook me up, it's really nothing I haven't seen before. You, on the other hand, you look kinda upset. Want to talk about what happened, or...?"

"What, you think I was scared? I don't do scared." She downed the drink and looked for Kaitlyn, but the Floater was talking to a steampunk tank. "I was absolutely fine the whole time."

The Time Lady paused, staring at her glass. "But if there had been a problem..." She grimaced. "Let's just say that I've regenerated twice in the PPC, and both times were in the PPC - right here in HQ. I wasn't too keen on the prospect of a third one, and it was so..." Morgan stopped, shook her head, and dropped into a whisper. "So real."

The Aviator grimaced and took another large gulp. "Too real. I don't care how much fun my brother had, I'm never doing this again. Whoever thought this was a good idea is getting introduced to the business end of a flamethrower if I find them."

Morgan waved at the stage. "Those two - oh, they've gone - were just the presenters, I think. The real brains behind Nutmeg goes by 'Undis Closed', and I don't think anyone's figured out who he is." She laughed harshly. "Not like anyone other than the Real Monitor has tried, I guess, and we all know what they're like."

She looked down at the table for a moment, then snuck a glance at the Aviator. "D'you mind if I ask you a question?"

Morgan glanced around. The bar was crowded, of course, but most of the agents were absorbed in their own conversations (or drinks). Still... she leant forwards and lowered her voice. "It's just... how do you do it? How do you go through a warzone like that and not... I mean, and come out still... yourself, and okay, and not unable to sleep because of the nightmares?" She tried to take a drink, realised her glass was still empty, then put it down firmly and pressed her hand to the table to hide the shaking. "Y'know. As an academic interest. As it were."

~

((AKA, 'In which I remember that despite all her aggression, Morgan has never actually been a soldier...'))

"That figures." She stared down at the tabletop for a long moment, then made eye contact again. "But... you're here. You're not curled up in a corner or," she flicked her empty glass with a fingernail, "drowning your sorrows all the time. You contribute at Council meetings, and go on missions, and have," she waved a hand in the general direction of Zeb, "friends and the like, and... how?"

The Aviator spun her empty glass around, looking blankly at it, and she gave a heavy sigh. "We haven't really talked a whole lot outside of Council meetings, so you don't know what's... going on when it's just me and my partner in the RC. But trust me." She gave a dark smile. "I'm not as put-together as I look." She nodded at her ankle, where the tracker hung like a weight. "If I was, this thing would prolly be going off right now, come to think of it."